Business as Usual (episode)
Quark's cousin Gaila offers him a job as a weapons dealer. Summary Dax and Quark are playing Tongo while the latter is checking on his stock quotes. He then realizes he is practically ruined. Since business failures travel fast among Ferengis, Quark's cousin, Gaila, immediately arrives following this. He then proposes to Quark to go into weapon selling business with him. Gaila entices Quark with visions of a weapons market growing so fast that within a year, Quark could be debt-free and living on his very own moon. Quark the bartender then immediately changes into a weapon dealer, using his holosuites to do the demonstrations (and avoiding the risk of bringing weapons aboard DS9). He also meets with his cousin's associate: Hagath, who is ruthless and will not hesitate to kill subordinates who disappoint him. Hagath, however seems to like Quark from the start. We also learn that Gaila wants to go out of that partnership and that it is the reason he offered Quark the opportunity. Quark's financial situation soon improves; he quickly reimburses his debtors (thanks to Hagath who doesn't let Quark touch the money he doesn't really own), just as Gaila predicted. However, all of Quark's Starfleet friends (including Dax) quickly turn away from him, even if no one formally opposes him, Hagath being a former Bajoran terrorist supplier. When concluding a deal with the Regent of Palamar, Quark begins to realize the impact of what he is doing. Probably because of his previous arguments with Dax, he ask a little more about the intention behind the deal. He then learns that the weapons will be used to lead 28 million people to their death. Attributing his remorse to his prolonged contact with humans, Quark nevertheless decides to make the deal fail, regardless of the reaction of Hagath. Quark then arranges a meeting (fooling everyone involved) between the Regent and his political opponent in a cargo bay, General Nassuc. A blood bath ensues, Gaila and Hagath barely escaping the station alive. Ending the episodes with more enemies and damages to pay for, Quark is still happy, having regained his friends and escaping with a better conscience. Memorable Quotes "28 ''million dead? Can't we just wound some of them?" : - 'Quark' "''Look out there. Millions and millions of stars. Millions upon millions of worlds. And right now, ''half of them are fanatically dedicated to destroying the other half. Now, do you think, if one of those twinkling lights suddenly went out, anybody would notice? ... Suppose I offered you ten million bars of gold-pressed latinum to help turn out one of those lights. Would you really tell me to keep my money?" : - 'Gaila' "''How much did they pay you? Enough to buy a new conscience?" : - Jadzia Dax and Kira Nerys, in Quark's dream. "What do I have to lose?" : - Quark "You'd better hope there isn't a next time mister. I have cut you a lot of slack in the past. I even looked away once or twice when I could have come down hard on you, but those days are over. Now we may not get you for selling weapons, but you so much as litter on the Promenade, and I will nail you to the wall!" "Something to look forward to" : - Sisko and Kira Nerys to Quark Background Information *During their first pitch session Bradley Thompson and David Weddle were told by Ira Steven Behr that he wanted a story "where Quark runs up against the limits of his greed." This episode was the result. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) *Bradley Thompson and David Weddle based the outline of this episode on real life events. As Weddle explains, "We'd heard that Russian scientists were pulling plutonium out of warheads and selling it. Knowing that Cardassia was, at this point in the series, falling apart, we wondered what would happen if the planet decided to sell off its weapons." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) *This episode was directed by Alexander Siddig, using the name Siddig El-Fadil under which he had previously acted. *Steven Berkoff appeared in ''Clockwork Orange'' along with Siddig's uncle, Malcolm McDowell. *Of Lawrence Tierney's appearance, Ira Steven Behr enthuses "It was one of the highlights of my year to have him on the show. He's one of my icons." Unfortunately, Tierney had suffered a stroke shortly before shooting this episode, and although he could deliver his lines perfectly, he had trouble remembering them. This caused quite a bit of stress for first-time director Alexander Siddig, but in the end, Tierney's performance was one of the highlights of the show. As assistant director Louis Race points out, "He really came to deliver one line: 'I'm here to buy weapons; are you here to sell them?' And he delivered that line like somebody calling to you from the other side of death. It was just chilling. So when the guy had to deliver, he did, and when he did his close-up, nobody stayed in their trailers. They all came over to watch." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) *Gaila's speech to Quark ("Suppose I offered you ten million bars of gold-pressed latinum...") is adapted from Orson Welles' speech in Carol Reed's classic film . *The Metron Consortium from is mentioned in this episode. *Quark mentions his futures in quadrotriticale, a reference to . *A line cut from an early draft of the script referenced a Vulcan science vessel named T'Pan, which had requested permission to dock at Deep Space 9, and was granted to put in at Docking Bay Three. It also referenced the , which was also docked at the station refueling. *This episode is a favorite of actor Armin Shimerman; "What I like about it is that there's a real, actual problem that Quark has to face, a true dilemma. Having lived with Starfleet for so many years, Quark's begun to acclimatize to their culture, as anyone would who lives in a foreign culture. Because if you live in that culture longer and longer, you begin to take on its characteristics. And certainly, Quark's feelings of remorse and justice and morality are beginning to loom larger and larger." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) *Worf's ability to placate Kirayoshi O'Brien would be seen again in the sixth season episode , where he would assume baby-sitting duty. *When asked if he thinks Quark would have gone ahead with the deal if less people were going to die, Bradley Thompson replied "We just found one line of Quark's greed that he wouldn't cross. We haven't found the bottom line yet." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 5.9, . *As part of the DS9 Season 5 DVD collection. Links and References Main Cast *Avery Brooks as Benjamin Sisko *Rene Auberjonois as Odo *Michael Dorn as Worf *Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax *Cirroc Lofton as Jake Sisko *Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien *Armin Shimerman as Quark *Alexander Siddig as Julian Bashir *Nana Visitor as Kira Nerys Guest Stars *Lawrence Tierney as Regent of Palamar *Josh Pais as Gaila *Tim Halligan as Farrakk Special Guest Star *Steven Berkoff as Hagath Co-Star *Eric Cadora as Alien Customer Uncredited Co-Stars *Charlie Curtis as Talura *Mark Allen Shepherd as Morn *Brian Demonbreun as a Starfleet science officer References Andarian glass beads; Annel; antimonium; Bajor; Bajoran Provisional Government; Bajoran Resistance; biogenic weapon; Bolians; cargo bay; Clavisoa berry; Breen CRM-114 (Breen); dabo; darts; ''Defiant'', USS; deflector array; descrambler; Dopterians; feldomite; Ferengi Commerce Authority; Ferengi Rules of Acquisition; garlic; general; hologram; holosuite; latinum; Manchovites; Matopin rock fungus; Metron Consortium; Minnobia; moon; moon grass; mutagenic retrovirus; Nassuc; neural modulator; O'Brien, Keiko; O'Brien, Kirayoshi; O'Brien, Molly; ODN relay; oo-mox; optronic emitter; Palamar; Palamarians; Palamarian Freedom Brigade; Palamarian sea urchin; Parsion III; powdered newt supplements; prions; Proxcinians; Proxcinian War; quadrotriticale; regent; Replimat; Risa; Rozhenko, Alexander; Sepian Commodities Exchange; skimmer; snail juice; tartoc; tongo; tritanium; Varaxian LM-7; Vek; Verillians; Vilix'pran; warp core breach; weapons; Wentlian condor snake; Yridians. |next= }} Category:DS9 episodes de:Kriegsgeschäfte es:Business as Usual nl:Business as Usual